Kolkata, 03 April (H.S.): The Election Commission has exempted officials of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) from Assembly election-related duties in view of the ongoing teacher recruitment process in the state.

According to court sources, Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta High Court appreciated the move, observing that the fresh teacher recruitment process initiated after the cancellation of around 26,000 SSC jobs in 2025 would now be able to proceed without disruption.

Sources said that on March 1, around 24 SSC officials were issued appointment letters as polling officers. Subsequently, on March 25, the SSC approached the Calcutta High Court seeking relief.

Counsel for the SSC informed the court that there were concerns over whether the recruitment process could be completed by the August 31 deadline set by the Supreme Court if key officials were assigned election duties. The commission submitted that it has only 35 employees managing its overall operations and recruitment process. With 24 of them assigned to poll duty, only 11 staff members were left to handle the work.

The commission also informed the court that interviews for the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff are currently underway. It argued that without the return of these officials, it would not have been possible to complete the recruitment process within the deadline set by the apex court.

The SSC further argued that it is an autonomous body and its employees function under its administrative control, and therefore they should not be deployed for election-related work.

The Election Commission later informed the Calcutta High Court that the 24 SSC officials who had been assigned election duties had been relieved. The Additional District Magistrate had already issued orders on April 1 releasing them from their responsibilities as polling officers. Following this submission, the bench of Justice Krishna Rao disposed of the matter.

Notably, in April 2025, the Supreme Court had cancelled the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in connection with the SSC recruitment irregularities case and directed the initiation of a fresh recruitment process for Classes 9 to 12. The court had directed the SSC to complete the new recruitment process by August 31 this year. The earlier deadline had been set for March.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh